We Need Safe Spaces.

(ThySistas.com) We live in a society that shames us for acknowledging we are abused by the powers that be. Furthermore, there is a stress that comes with always fearing for ones’ life and safety that is beyond words. It causes both mental and physical health issues. While I respect the ideal of desegregation I am left to wonder if segregation would have been a safer course for our people. Some of us know all too well that we lack safe spaces in this world. When our men are killed in the backyard home doesn’t feel the same. Where can we go that will allow us the peace to fellowship amongst each other in a way that is refreshing to the spirit? We need safe spaces that allow us to heal one another and its not racist to acknowledge this need.

Yes, we know every sister will not understand us, but there is some universal understanding amongst us even when we work on each other’s nerves. The beauty shop, and spaces like it, are not just special because a sister understands our hair. Those spaces matter because in them we can be ourselves. We can have discussions that matter to us, and even if we don’t all agree we are in a space of understanding. We need spas, and resorts that are for us. The spaces need to be owned by black women or black women with the needs of black women being the primary goal.

For our sanity we require spaces that allow us to feel vulnerable without judgement. We need to see each other beyond colorism and class. It is important to be able to relate as women, mothers, and necessary forces of energy in our community. Returning to an understanding of where our magic comes from will help us better understand each other, our men, our children and how too be more effective in our community.

Such spaces would give us the security to love one another and see the beauty in the individual and collective spirits we share. In doing this it would help us to elevate to a space of self-love and self-acceptance that we desperately need. It’s one thing to talk about sisters being Queens, but until we see the love inside self can we really embody the title? Words, and titles, are very important. We need to acknowledge and support the Black Girl Magic in our girls, but in our safe spaces we must harness the magic of Black Queens…we need elevation. These things can manifest themselves in safe spaces created by us.

Though the world around us is bloody, vile and even an enemy to our existence and well-being we can combat that in our own spaces. Never let any woman tell you we don’t deserve our safe spaces. The privilege of other women, primarily white woman, has no bearing on the truth of what we as black women need not merely to survive, but thrive in who we are individually and collectively. It is important that we come together with sisters in our family, neighborhoods and cities to create safe spaces that will give us life.